Emilio’s Salad Dressing – Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette
I try to eat salads for lunch at least four times a week. It’s tough. No, literally, tough; it’s a lot of chewing. I sometimes feel like a cow chewing its cud and I can get sick of them pretty quickly. The only way to eat salads so often is to change them up. And so I do.
Sometimes I change the greens; romaine is standard, but spinach is good, as is baby kale, and sometimes zippy arugula makes an appearance. The base of my Vietnamese-inspired salad is fresh bean sprouts with finely chopped cabbage. And it’s always nice when I have fresh greens from the garden.
Other times I change the toppings. Cut veggies are a constant, but I may add different types of cheese – feta or cheddar or parmesan. Chickpeas, roasted red peppers, olives, a hard-boiled egg, or quickly seared corn are all great. If they are left over from last night’s dinner, I’ll add roasted vegetables. Half an avocado is always a treat. Sometimes there’s a few slices of grilled chicken or something for crunch – toasted nuts or croutons. I may make a taco-ish salad with steak, chicken, or spiced ground meat on top, along with a few tortilla chips.
And then there’s the dressing. I usually have olive oil and balsamic vinegar or a Greek dressing if I’m adding feta. Maybe once in a while I’ll make something Asian-ish with rice vinegar and sesame oil. I usually cover taco salads in pico de gallo or salsa verde. But one of my favorite salad dressings is a creamy balsamic vinaigrette that I re-created from our favorite Italian restaurant, Emilio’s, one of the seemingly thousands of Italian restaurants on Long Island where we live. There’s one in almost every strip mall.
We’ve been going to Emilio’s for more than 20 years. It’s a fast-paced, red sauce Italian joint that serves pizza and pasta and chicken parm, and it’s heavy on the garlic, as would be expected. Their house salad is really nothing special, greens with shredded carrots, a slice of cucumber, some roasted red peppers, a jarred olive or two, some paper thin slivers of red onion. But the dressing on that house salad; it makes the salad something special. I love it. Creamy with the slightly sweet acidity of the balsamic. If we’re finished with the salad, waiting for the rest for the meal, and there’s dressing left, I can’t help but dip a corner of bread in it.
Because it’s so good, I recently went about re-creating it. The result is far superior to any bottled, store-bought dressing, and it takes no time to make. It will take your salads to another level. While we still go to Emilio’s whenever we can, at least I can have my version of their salad dressing whenever I want. And it makes me want to eat salad so I don’t get sick of eating them for lunch four times a week.
Emilio’s Balsamic Vinaigrette
Since this salad dressing is mayonnaise-based, I wouldn’t exactly call it health food. That’s why I don’t eat it too often, even if the salad is good for me. To help with the health aspect, I use “light” mayo, which at least cuts down the calories a little. And in a dressing, you can’t really taste the difference.
makes 1 cup, about 5 minutes
1 cup “light” mayonnaise
1½ Tbsp. Dijon mustard
½ tsp. dried basil
3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- Place all ingredients in a bowl.
- Whisk together until smooth. This will take a few minutes. First the mixture will appear all lumpy, but keep going and it will eventually smooth out.
- Taste and adjust flavors, adding more vinegar, mustard, or basil to your liking. You may also want to add salt and pepper.
- If the salad dressing is too thick (and it likely will be at first), add cold water, one tablespoon at a time, whisking it in to incorporate until reaching your desired consistency.
